There’s thousands of stories like this out there with data complexities today to where when a mistake is made, it has to be corrected throughout all the areas to where the data was referenced or used in this case for billing and collections. The bill was less than $400 and was paid but due to “flawed data” it became a nightmare for this man and it just went on and on. This is becoming a major issue too with getting timely corrections made with flawed data. Nobody seems to give this area enough priority it seems. We see it all over and even in another area with the Presidential Inaugural Ball, Ticketmaster told customers, “sorry we did it but too bad”. Nobody wants to open up and correct the data flows when errors occur, why, because it costs time and money when they are focusing on bringing money in.

The man became so frustrated that he paid it again out of his own pocket and then due to “flawed data” with a “wrong address” listed, his nightmare continued while his credit ratings sank. Finally an admittance that the wrong address was entered and they said they would fix it and remove the bad credit information that had been on his account since 2010. Look we are in 2013, so how long has this gone on? A long time for this man and 60 Minutes did a great presentation on “flawed data” mainly in the credit area and I’ll embed this below if you have not seen it but if you get nothing else out of it wake up to the fact that what credit agencies send you and what they send companies who inquire are note the same thing…consumers are screwed in that respect. It’s all about flawed data and algorithms that execute code.

In addition, it’s good to know about companies like E-Scoring too who will not even let you see any of what they send out about you and the make millions in profits selling your data. Government just sits by and does nothing here as due to the way he has structured his business with algorithmic processes and hiding under the description of calling it “analytics for companies” he walks all around any laws and nobody does a thing but his company makes millions in profits selling credit information that you and I as consumers can’t, see, touch or question and this goes on because we don’t have any digital laws that cover such algorithmic use and a Congress that can’t get past their old “default” topic of women’s health to disguise their digital illiteracy. The entire story can be read at the link at the bottom of this post. BD

The Newark Star-Ledger’s Bamboozled column has the story of a New Jersey man who was the victim of a screw-up by the hospital’s billing system that saw him end up in collections, pay a bill that had already been paid and still see his credit score drop by more than 100 points.

It all began back in May 2011, when the man visited the emergency room at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ. He provided the hospital, where he had previously had an appendectomy, with his information and his insurance card from Aetna, paid his co-pay, etc., and was treated and released the same day.

In an attempt to prevent any further damage to his credit, the man decided it would probably be best to just pay the collections folks the $378 and then sort things out. But it only got worse.

Dark Arts of Mathemical Deception

Professor Charlie Siefe of NYU, a mathematician debunks clinical trials, and few other items to where data is spun and fools you, every day example, hear about the perfect butt algorithm and more. These are probably some things you have never thought about but again after listening to what he has to say, it’s time to think about being skeptical. Here’s a radio show that also talks about the same topics.

This video digs in a bit further with how fictitious business models are used by banks and companies do this too. The models are so complex that CEOs don’t even understand them. “Quants, The Alchemists of Wall Street will take you through how “math models” work at banks and financial institutions in a way that even the layman can understand. More videos like over at theAlgo Duping/Killer Algorithm Page. Bank of America will also tell you“IT’ is a business” how they make money.

Weapons of Math Destruction

This is a lecture where Kathy O’Neill, a former Quant who worked for a Hedge Fund (Weapons of Math Destruction) on Wall Street will tell you what is done with your retirement money and more. The banks and companies use technology to take advantage because they can. “Of course we are going to take advantage because our tools are our brains…if they could figure out a way to take advantage of pension funds they would, a good interview with explaining smart money and dumb money.

Algorithms Shape The World

This is a very good presentation done a TED Conference and really was the one that got everyone started thinking about algorithms and today it’s talked about a lot. As he says “if you’re an algorithm, life is looking pretty good, but can’t say the same for humans”. What is a black box? Nobody has any control over the flash crash. We have moved forward a bit but still we are writing the unreadable and lost the sense of some of what is happening. Nice plug for Nanex here with research.